Purchasing the most affordable Mansfield auto insurance on the web can be rather challenging for people who are new to comparing rates online. With a ridiculous number of insurers available, how can consumers even start to compare every one to find the best available price?
Make smart decisions and save
It’s important that you understand some of the elements that play a part in calculating auto insurance rates. Understanding what influences your rates empowers consumers to make smart changes that may reward you with big savings.
Shown below are a few of the “ingredients” used by your company to calculate rates.
- Choose a safe vehicle and save – Vehicles with good safety scores are cheaper to insure. The safest vehicles reduce injuries and better occupant protection means lower claim amounts and thus lower rates.
- Equipment add-ons that lower auto insurance rates – Driving a car with an alarm system can help lower your rates. Anti-theft features such as vehicle immobilizer systems, General Motors OnStar and LoJack tracking systems all hinder car theft.
- High credit ratings translate to low rates – Credit score is a important factor in determining your rates. Consumers who have high credit scores tend to be less risk to insure as compared to drivers with lower credit ratings. So if your credit score is low, you could save money insuring your by improving your rating.
- Sex matters – The statistics show that women are safer drivers than men. However, this does not mean men are WORSE drivers than women. They both cause accidents in similar numbers, but men have costlier accidents. Men also have more aggressive citations such as reckless driving. Male drivers age 16 to 19 are most likely to cause an accident and therefore have the most expensive auto insurance rates.
- Do you have enough liability coverage? – Liability insurance will protect you when a jury decides you are liable for causing damage or personal injury in an accident. It will provide for a legal defense up to the limits shown on your policy. Liability insurance is quite affordable compared to physical damage coverage, so do not skimp.
Cut your premium with discounts
Properly insuring your vehicles can get expensive, but there are discounts available that you may not know about. Some discounts apply automatically at the time of quoting, but less common discounts must be inquired about before being credited.
- No Claims – Drivers who don’t have accidents pay less when compared with frequent claim filers.
- Drive Safe and Save – Drivers who avoid accidents may save up to 50% more than drivers with accident claims.
- Multi-car Discount – Having more than one vehicle with the same company could earn a price break for each car.
- Discount for Swiching Early – Select companies give a discount for switching policies before your current expiration date. The savings is around 10%.
- Employee of Federal Government – Active or retired federal employment may qualify you for a discount depending on your company.
- Multiple Policy Discount – When you have multiple policies with the same company you could get a discount of up to 20% off your total premium.
- Distant Student – Children who attend school more than 100 miles from home and do not have access to a covered vehicle may be able to be covered for less.
- New Car Discount – Adding a new car to your policy can cost up to 25% less since new cars are generally safer.
Consumers should know that most discount credits are not given to the overall cost of the policy. Some only apply to the cost of specific coverages such as collision or personal injury protection. So even though they make it sound like you can get free auto insurance, companies don’t profit that way. Any qualifying discounts will reduce your overall premium however.
To see a list of insurers with discount auto insurance rates in Mansfield, click here.
For more Texas auto insurance information
Additional information can be found on the Texas Department of Insurance website through this link. Consumers can find a variety of consumer forms, discover disciplinary actions, find disaster information, and file complaints about a company.
Affordable insurance is out there
You just learned a lot of ways to reduce auto insurance prices online. It’s most important to understand that the more quotes you get, the better your comparison will be. You may even discover the lowest priced auto insurance comes from a lesser-known regional company.
As you restructure your insurance plan, it’s not a good idea to buy lower coverage limits just to save a few bucks. There have been many cases where drivers have reduced liability limits or collision coverage and found out when filing a claim that it was a big mistake. The ultimate goal is to buy the best coverage you can find at an affordable rate, not the least amount of coverage.
Discount auto insurance is available online and also from your neighborhood Mansfield agents, so you should compare both so you have a total pricing picture. Some companies may not provide online price quotes and usually these small insurance companies provide coverage only through local independent agents.